Sweet Disposition
by Seams
Summary: Ian O'Shea is in need of a tutor, and studious-and-shy Wanda seems to be perfect for the job. Melanie's disapproving, and Lacey's straight-up bullying her into staying away from him. But she's a little tired of being told what to do. Will Ian and Wanda's budding friendship persevere? [O'Wanda, All human, Alternate Universe. Setting: High School.]
1. Prologue

A/N: Apology and explanation in the bottom. Also, lets pretend for the story's sake, Picacho Peak isn't land locked.

* * *

SWEET DISPOSITION  
**PROLOGUE**

Wanda decided to watch the sky until it matched the colour of her mood. It wasn't particularly anything that left her feeling blue. It could have been the Monday morning, or it could have been Jamie's leaving.

Melanie was elated with the whole situation though. While Wanda stared out the car window, processing the fact she would not see Jamie for another three months, Melanie silently thought of all the things she would do on her first day as an adult. Jamie counted something off with his fingers, and Jeb drove the car. Sharon was blissfully ignored riding shotgun.

The ship's horn sounded from a distance, and Jeb stepped on the pedal with a sudden rush, causing Wanda to jump about with a little yell, and Melanie and Jamie to exclaim "Whoa!" in an excited manner. Sharon remained stoic, to everyone's pleasure.

When Jeb, Jamie and Sharon had all unloaded their baggage from the car, Wanda jumped in for a group hug, crying only a little. She was a hugger. Eventually Melanie joined in, and Sharon obviously refrained from such touchy-feely activities, especially with _Wanda _in the group.

"You girls take care of yourselves, now," Jeb warned, giving both Melanie and Wanda a good raise-of-the-eyebrow and just as quickly returned to a smile. It was now Jamie's turn to say his goodbyes.

"Miss you, Mel," he said, giving his sister a tight hug. He let go, and embraced his adopted sister now. "Miss you, Wanda."

Wanda was literally in tears now, unable to speak. As the horn sounded again, she whispered incoherent goodbyes to everyone, including Sharon, which went ignored again. She watched them entering the ship, while Melanie patted her back. She kept watching as the ship floated away into the distance, treading through the sea.

It made her think of herself, the sea. It made her think of her place in the world.

She was one vastly important person, according to none but herself. She was born alone and intended (against her heart's wishes) to die alone. Aside from being pessimistic and an orphan, Wanda was quite intelligent and also clueless. While she could name the capital of any country on the map, she could not tell what all the boys at school really thought when they were staring her down.

"Lets get going, Wanda, we'll be late for school," Melanie interjected her thoughts. She was now thinking about her travels of the past with Jeb, and how much she missed them.

She stood there watching still, for quite a long time and replied to Mel saying, "Okay." and then louder, and turning towards the car, "Okay."

When in her heart she knew, it wasn't really _okay_. She hated school. Hated it with everything she had, and no one could blame her because anyone would with a bully like Lacey had every right to. As she entered the building, she was pushed around – quite literally – while making her way to her locker. Melanie was too rough and tough for anyone to pick on, and with her around Wanda, pushing around was as far as anyone got.

Secretly though, Wanda was in many of the boys' hearts. With her petite frame and her blonde ringlets they could not deny she was certainly a girl worth having, but with Lacey hating her and Melanie protecting her everyone had managed to put off such thoughts from their minds. Wanda was simply not worth it.

Today, she did her routine check with the mirrors on her locker to look over to see what Lacey was upto. Most of the time she was with a bunch of girls, talking about people and mostly what they were wearing. Today, though, she did not appear in the reflection at all. She looked around the hall to see for herself, and managed through the crowd, to notice she was with some guy. It was just her, and a tall boy she did not recognize and Andy standing in the far corner near the front office.

She decided it was one of her new boyfriends. It was interesting to actually see her boyfriend in the flesh, because almost always the boyfriends she spoke of were from some other school or some other state. Though she could not see him clearly, he looked very athletic.

_Must be one of the jocks. _She thought, _Could be new. Haven't seen him around._

In a small town like Picacho Peak you usually had everyone's faces memorized.

She had nobody to greet while making her way to double English. She didn't have many friends. Melanie liked to call it _The Seeker Effect_. "The Seeker" was a nickname for Lacey first coined by Melanie, but it seemed to catch on, and everybody called her it behind her back. Anyway, her observation was that whoever Lacey victimized was bound to be friendless because she tended to scare everyone off. That was the effect.

Melanie and Wanda were far too close to ever be torn apart by a mere bully. They went way back to kindergarten, where Wanda had first moved to Picacho Peak with her foster parents. On her very first day of school, she'd been pushed into a ditch by a couple of mean kids. Melanie had been the one to save her. They'd been best friends ever since.

Wanda's adoption was another story, though.

Her English teacher was the only person to greet her this morning. As soon as she reached her desk, she resolved to nap through Macbeth but today was quite loud and full of gossip. Gossip was common, but not to this extent, where everybody was talking about the same thing.

"His eyes are dreamy."

"I just want to touch his hair."

"I want to touch his everything."

"I bet the height of his body is proportional to the size of his-"

She'd plugged her ears beyond that point. The subject was no doubt the guy Lacey was with, and it no doubt annoyed her English teacher to the point where he told the class to shut up. Paige, the girl who sat next to Wanda, (and not by choice of free will) still spoke in hushed tones to her friends. Wanda didn't know most of their names.

"So, Andy told me he plays ball," Paige was saying, and this made her friend bite her lip, enticed.

"So you're saying," her friend started, the notion making her excited, "I can get to see him shirtless underneath the sun every time I go to the bleachers?"

Paige got in close to whisper, "Better. I'm saying, Andy is a close friend of his, and I could totally hook you two up."

"Get out." She said in disbelief. Lacey, who was way across the room was now tuned in to their conversation.

"Sorry, Violetta," she sneered, clearly really happy with whatever she'd done or had to say. "I've already called dibs. Before Violetta could object, Lacey continued, "He looked me over today, and already asked me to give him a tour."

The person next to Lacey, a boy this time, said, "Lacey's scoring an O'Shea then? This requires a celebration don't you think?"

Wanda was now tuned out. Even Macbeth seemed like a more interesting topic to focus on than their foolish fights and passive aggression over a _boy_. They continued their chattering while Wanda ran that name over her head. _O'Shea. _ Why did that name sound so familiar?

* * *

A/N: So here's the deal. I apologize for the delay, but I had an insane case of writer's block. There was an imperative part of the story that would be ruined if it was written in Wanda's point of view, so I sat down editing it to be written in **the third person**. The prologue may seem like everything in the story's changed, but I assure you, it's still going to be pretty much the same. I only added bits I felt were unexplained. Thanks for still sticking to the story!

I'll try to be more regular with the updates.

Plus, I've got a new story I've been working on. Sorry, guys, I'm just enjoying my summer too much.


	2. Impromptu Meeting

CHAPTER 1  
**IMPROMPTU MEETING**

The subject of the new boy did not go by undiscussed by Melanie either.

"I can't believe that kid has the audacity to step back into this town." Melanie was saying to Jared at break.

"Mel, you know he had nothing to do with it," Jared replied, brushing her arm back and forth to alleviate her anger. Most of the time it worked, but Melanie was especially crabby this morning. Her good mood had apparently been rained over by the theatrical entrance of this new kid.

"_My ass_, he had nothing to do with it." Frustrated, she moved her head from the trunk of the big tree the three were circled under, sitting upright and crossing her arms.

"Can someone please tell me what this is about?" Wanda voiced. She had gone through the day voiceless, and all her knowledge of today's high school drama was built on the gossiping she'd heard throughout English and Trig. Usually she dismissed gossip, but even Melanie was talking about him. Who _was _this boy?

Melanie looked at her like the answer was obvious. She stared at her as if that was not even a question worth asking. Jared said nothing either, and neither made not one hint or allusion.

"I actually have no idea." she announced, clueless as always.

Melanie stared at her curiously for a few more seconds and finally asked, "Remember the ditch in Kindergarten?"

Wanda nodded, because she did, she definitely did. She'd been thinking about it this morning and that incident was one thing she would never forget. "Yeah."

"You remember who threw you in the ditch?"

"Of course." Her memory was not crystal clear, but she was pretty sure it was Lacey. It was always Lacey.

"No, I mean, who pulled you out of the sandbox, and made Lacey throw you in the first place."

Wanda stared at her, clearly confused. Either there was a huge gap in her memory, or she had mixed something up.

Melanie waited for her to get it, but it didn't click. "The big, nasty, fourth grader."

_Oh, that guy._

"Kyle?" the name sounded strange on her lips, probably because it hadn't come out of her mouth in over a decade.

"Yes, that one. Kyle O'Shea." _Now I know where I know that name_. Kyle was a soccer legend at their school – he graduated years before. Everyone knew about him, but never actually saw him. "Him and his brother decided to throw you in there."

_Is that what this is about? A preschool grudge?_

Kind of sounded pathetic to Wanda.

"Mel, why are you _still holding on to that_?" She said, half-amused, half-irritated. "If you don't remember, that's how we even became friends."

"Ridiculous." Melanie spat back. "They almost murdered you."

"They were just kids." Wanda countered. Frankly, she found a grudge this old and silly was entirely ridiculous itself. But she was still busy trying to connect the dots. "So what's this got to do with him? Who is he, then?"

"Kyle's partner in crime obviously." Jared answered. "His baby brother, Ian."

_Finally, an identity._

She'd never heard the name before, so it didn't mean anything to her.

"Don't you even say his name-" Melanie started, but was cut off by Jared's finger on her lips. Neither Wanda nor Melanie had noticed how Jared's arm had sneakily snaked around on Melanie's waist, and Wanda sense this was her cue to leave.

"Well, I'll just be... getting my books for history. See you guys at lunch."

Maybe now would be a good time to bring up _Jared_. Melanie's first boyfriend. Wanda's first crush. Of course, Wanda had never let that come between them. It was years ago, in Elementary, when Wanda had first met him. And it didn't take much to fall in love with Jared Howe, captain of the basketball team, baseball team and twice the head of the Student Council. He'd been the object of almost every girl's eye, an "Ian O'Shea" of the past, talked about as often as him. After he'd decided he and Melanie were a thing, he'd become one of the untouchables.

And that was the end of the story. Of course, Wanda often wondered, like right now, what could have changed if at the time they'd come close, she had chosen to stay in Picacho Peak instead of running off with Uncle Jeb on some of his mindless, whimsical adventures.

The feelings had faded quite a bit, but that did not stop her from being a little disgusted by their PDA. Although, she did not admit it, she did have a secret wish to have something like that. Have something like what Melanie and Jared had – less amplified and public of course. But she often dreamt of someone who would see she was more than just that lonely, orphaned, weird girl. More than just an object to victimize.

She was quite grateful for the emptiness of the hallways as she though of this. The books she'd retrieved were too heavy for her, but she didn't mind. She pushed herself to be less fragile, and more like Melanie.

Wanda was not lost in her thoughts for long. Up ahead, near the cafeteria doors, a figure came jogging through, running towards her – not towards, she realized. He was running away, rather. But from who?

She did not recognize him, but he did have a tall frame, dark hair and ocean's for eyes, the colour she'd been watching this morning. She could take a good guess.

He noticed her too, clearly, and decided to hide near the set of lockers closest to her. Wanda found all of this quite strange and worked up the courage to ask, "Are you lost?"

The boy said nothing, but rather looked over his shoulder, and mouthed, "Shh" and motioned a finger on his pale lips. Wanda's eyes darted around, trying to figure out what it was that he concentrated so deeply on. Moments later, she could hear footsteps and bits of chattering. She could not tell how many voices their were, because the boy next to her did not let her focus for long enough. He tugged at her wrist, and dragged her inside the nearest classroom.

They shut the door behind them, and found themselves inside an empty, dimly lit laboratory. The boy had not let go of her wrist, and was listening intently to the chatting with his ear on the door. The voice was Lacey's.

"I bet that Violetta chick's after him. I _told _him I'd take him to Geography, what the flip does he think he's doing? That chick's probably pulling God knows what miserable move on him and ..."

Her voice trailed off, a mere squeaking from a distance. He waited an extra few seconds until the footsteps and the chatting had completely stopped. He exhaled a breath he was holding for the entire time, and let go of her wrist. All the while, Wanda watched him. She almost decided to pinch herself because she found the situation unreal.

_I'm with a boy. In a dark room. Alone._

"That was a close one." He said to her, chuckling. He had a nice laugh. "Phew."

_He's talking to me._

He opened the door, and motioned for Wanda to go first. She walked out, staring at her feet, too in shock to even reply or thank him. She wasn't actually sure what exactly to say.

She was blinking profusely, looking into his eyes, and then away, trying to make sense of the situation. She opened and closed her mouth innumerable times, still unsure what to say. When she didn't say anything, the boy huffed, resting his hand on his bent knees, and began explaining himself. "She's been after me since this morning." he straightened up and stretched, panting a little. "I don't even know why." Wanda looked around her again, to see who he was really addressing. "Yeah, I'm talking to you."

She was, needless to say, surprised. She licked her lips looking for a suitable response. "You want to explain why you hid me too?" she asked, after what seemed like hours.

"Can't have you giving me away." He shrugged, looking right into her eye. They scared her a little, with their dazzling, bright blue. Like they'd drown her. Intimidating. She looked away from them.

"You won't have to worry about that." She replied, giving him a small smile. The bell sounded, signalling our next class. "What class do you have next?"

"Anything but Geography."

She giggled to herself and he sort of smiled back, cocking his head in a curious way.

"I don't even like Geography. Don't even know why I took it." He smiled at her. It wasn't often anyone even so much as looked at her at this school, and it made blood rush to her cheeks.

"You must be Ian, then." She said, trying to smile back and act like she was used to regular people having a conversation with her. He kind of had a curious glint in his eyes, so she added, "You're kind of today's hot topic."

Ian groaned, shaking his head. "Don't remind me."

She giggled again. _Control yourself, Wanda._

As more kids started filling into the hall, she motioned for him to follow her. "Come on, I'll take you to class."

As she began crossing the hall with him, a bunch of girls began beating up her locker. Like, full on kicking and punching and writing "FREAKSHOW" all over it.

"That isn't very nice," Ian noted.

Wanda shrugged. "I'm used to it."

* * *

A/N: So you see, it isn't much different. I still hope you like it! Updates won't take very long, hopefully. I'm trying to do two things at once and it appears I'm not the best multi-tasker. Enjoy!


	3. Unexpected Friendship

CHAPTER 2  
**UNEXPECTED FRIENDSHIP**

The murder of Wanda's locker was not the only unfortunate event that befell upon her that Ian had to witness. A bunch of other girls had decided it was funny to topple all those heavy books from her hand.

Ian silently helped her with them, all the while wondering how in the world she tolerated all this. What's more, one of the boys entering the classroom tucked one of her ringlets behind her ear, giving her a suggestive wink.

_This is disgusting_, Ian thought. _I barely know this girl and I want to knock out his teeth._

She only held the books to her chest and kept walking like this was nothing. Wanda was somehow glad that this was the worst that happened to her in front of this Ian character. She could imagine worse situations.

In history class, she'd expected more taunting and teasing but surprisingly she was saved from all of it. Ushering Ian had proved to be helpful for her, because all eyes were on him. A few of them realized she had been walking with him, and shot daggers at her but she managed to ignore them.

"Hey, Walter," she said to her teacher on the way. He greeter her back. They were on a first name basis only because he was close friend of Jeb's. She made her way to the table at the back, towards Lily and Wes.

"Cute guy," Lily noted. "Your friend?"

"He's the new guy." Wes answered for her.

"Well not exactly," Ian interrupted. Wanda had not noticed him follow her. She snuck out the group to inform Walter of Ian's presence. "I moved to Florida from here when I was ten. I'm back now." Ian joined their table.

"Odd to join school in the middle of Senior Year," Lily said to him.

"Well, not when you have a legitimate reason," he responded.

"And yours is?" Wes quizzed.

"A _long_ story."

Wanda was back now. "Well this is a long class."

"Maybe some other time." Ian said.

Right then, their conversation halted just as Ian wished when Walter informed the class that they would be not be studying any texts today.

"Since we have a new student in our midst," he explained. "I think it's a suitable time to do that introduction class we decided to skip."

There was cheering.

"History is all about incident. We've been told for ages that looking at the past is important, and that's true. But it's really more about how you decide to look at it. So in this class, we teach other by sharing stories. So pick a partner and get started on some interesting revelations."

Lily and Wes instantly got into deep discussion, while there was a moment's hesitation between Ian and Wanda. "Maybe you need a prompt," Ian decided, when the silence got too uncomfortable. "If you don't mind my asking, how did you manage the entire school to turn against you?"

Wanda licked her lips. "My sister calls it _The Seeker Effect._"

"I'm not quite sure I follow."

"The Seeker is a nickname she coined. For Lacey."

"Oh, _that _one." Ian twitched a little when she said her name.

"When Lacey hates you, the whole town hates you."

"Why is that, though?"

"She's the Mayor's daughter."

Ian processed this silently. Wanda built up the nerve to prompt him now. "Can I ask you one?"

"Knock yourself out."

"Why did you move back here?"

Ian took a while to answer her. "I don't think I really know."

Wanda's eyes sparkled now, curious. "How could you not know?"

"I guess I came here because my brother had to, for his Jodi. But I was tired of Florida anyway. Tired of the partying, the crowds, the girls. Or maybe I was just plain tired. I needed something different."

Wanda could never meet his eyes without staring at them, so she decided to stare at her feet and talk.

"You could have waited until college."

"I'm not much for waiting."

Ian did not try to hide his interest in her. He openly watched her, looked into her eyes, attempted to read this girl that was too scared to even look at him straight.

"You don't talk much, do you?" he said, when she refused to open her mouth unless prompted to do so. "Can you believe I've had an actual conversation with you and I still don't know your name?"

Wanda rubbed her arm nervously. "I have a dozen names actually. I may be a Stryder now, but I was a Robinson, a Shores, a Browning, even a Schlesinger, and I don't even know how to pronounce it."

_I wonder how that is_, Ian thought, but decided her identity was more important.

"No really, who are you?" he asked with genuine wonder.

She launched into a story now "I met a spiritual healer once in Peru. He said everyone in the world has a chosen name, the name of our soul – we are given something, and we choose to be whoever we want."

"And what did you say?"

"I asked him what my chosen name should be."

"And he told you?"

"He said, 'You'll find out one day, little wanderer.'"

He leaned towards me. "So what does that mean?"

"I guess I'm still trying to figure it out."

He crossed his arms. "So where in that story lies the answer to my initial question?"

"Oh," she said, shaking her head. "Wanda."

"Wanda." He said to himself, full of thoughts. "You've been to _Peru_, and you can't find any stories to tell?"

"Well, everyone dismisses them as just that: stories. No truth. They wouldn't believe that's where I actually was."

"Have you been anywhere else?"

"Well, I've skipped five fosters home, and lived in four different countries with Uncle Jeb."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm." She nodded. "I like to travel."

"Wanda," he called out her name. A change came across his face, all of a sudden, and his

eyes widened. "Wanderer."

"What?"

"Don't you get it?" She shook her head. "Little Wanderer. You've travelled to many places. Your name is Wanda."

"I'm not sure what you're saying."

"Your chosen name. It's Wanderer."

She looked into his eyes that were so full of enthusiasm. "How?"

"Wanda, Wanderer. Can't be a coincidence." She stared at him now. It made sense.

"_How did I not think of that_?" She said mostly to herself, frustrated.

"Don't worry," he responded, just when the bell rang. "It'll be our little secret, Wanderer."

* * *

A/N: In a way, I like this change in narrative structure because now we get to know Ian's thought as well as Wanda without ruining the story. Hope you like it!


	4. Conflicts Emerge

CHAPTER 3

**CONFLICTS EMERGE**

In all honesty, Wanda did not see anything bad about Ian. He was nice, friendly and treated her like an actual person. After she'd told her stories in history, Ian decided to tell his. He hadn't quite finished in class, so they even spoke in the hall.

"If you looked at those crazy anklets! So basically, later on, Jodi took them back, and then Kyle went batshit crazy and pissed on a fire hydrant. There are actually even more pathetic and ridiculous instances of Kyle peeing on weird things, you wouldn't believe, I'm sure. That idiot, I swear to God. The things he made _me _do."

Wanda was laughing throughout the entire story. They were walking to the front office, so they hadn't garnered much attention. The hallway was mostly empty with a few girls staring enviously. Wanda began walking the other way when they'd arrived when Ian said, "Wait, you're not sticking around?"

"Um," Wanda searched for words. "Do you want me to?"

"Sure. You're the only person around here who doesn't gawk at me like there's shit of my face." Wanda wasn't sure what to say. "Keep me company."

She couldn't say no, so she said nothing and waited for Ms. Singer with him. Occasionally Ian would make a jokes while walking him to Spanish but really most of the time it was Ian smiling at Wanda, and Wanda smiling back, happy to even _have _somebody to smile at.

She usually didn't step into this high school drama business, but she could not deny help when someone wanted it. To be honest, Ian did not really need Wanda's help. Any girl at this school would be happy to. She figured he was one of those guys that everyone would be talking about, then he'd make a social blunder like dating the wrong cheerleader and Lacey would find a way to ruin him. That would be the end of it. Their obsession would fade.

That wasn't even the end of it. Throughout Spanish, Wanda realized she _wanted _it to fade. She was frankly, a bit jealous. There he was, Ian O'Shea, the new kid, accepted, loved and friended like a real townie even though he just got here, while Wanda struggled for years to find a place.

Sometimes she wondered if that's how it was supposed to be. She would always be a visitor, never a citizen. An outsider. Wanderer seemed like a suitable chosen name at this point.

It didn't seem fair.

At lunch, she noticed Ian with a bunch of other girls and a few guys crowding around him at one of the nicer tables with the beautiful view. He was popular kid material so Wanda did not expect any less. He noticed her, and smiled at her, and Wanda smiled back. But, farther into the corner, something else came into Wanda's notice. The happiness on her face disappeared, because Lacey had noticed their exchange and was not pleased.

She walked away towards the lunch line, hurriedly, to escape conflict, but minutes later, when she felt a painful jab on her shoulder, she knew there was no escaping conflict.

While Wanda cringed in pain, Lacey came in close to whisper, "Don't you even look at him."

She could live with that.

Then she decided the threatening needed some sugar-coating, so she knocked her tray out of her hands. She didn't look up to meet the eyes that were on her, she just wanted an apple, and to get the hell out. She hoped she looked okay, even though she was terrified inside, as she always was with Lacey around. She tried to shove her way past her but stopped in her tracks.

"Are you okay?" Ian rushed to her side.

"I can't," Wanda replied, barely audible. "I just can't." She walked by him, without so much as glancing at him. When she made it near the door, she was stopped by someone else. She grabbed her arm, and dragged her towards Lacey.

"_I thought told you not to breathe near my sister_?" It is hard to describe the kind of hatred smeared across Melanie's face. Wanda thought hatred made everyone look so ugly. She wasn't even shouting, but she was threatening enough. She did not take it kindly when people liked to pick on her sister. "You keep your poisonous air away from her, or I will make sure every passing second of the rest of your days is purely miserable."

Ian watched all this with horror in his eyes.

Melanie stormed out, taking Wanda with her. They didn't speak until they reached their spot underneath the huge tree. Jared was nowhere to be seen. Wanda supposed he had a lunchtime briefing this time.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with all this shit," Melanie started saying. "With that bitch, and me being like this."

"Being like what?" Wanda asked, innocently.

"You know. All aggressive and irritated all the time. I don't mean to be." she explained. "And with Jeb leaving and me manning the house and all these expectations..."

"It's okay, you try your best." Wanda tried to give her a reassuring smile.

"You know, it would be a lot easier for all of us if you could just _be angry_ for once."

She cringed at the mere mention of the word. "Anger is just... it's hideous. I don't think I can be angry at you Melanie."

Melanie fidgeted awkwardly, and Wanda observed a mixture of sadness and guilt in her eyes. She averted her eyes and watched Andy and Wes play soccer. That's when Wanda realized Jared couldn't possibly be at a lunchtime briefing.

"Mel, where's Jared?" she asked. Her empty stomach did a lurch, and a sudden sick feeling washed through her.

"Wanda, I have to tell you something."

_She has to tell me something._

Whatever followed that phrase was never a good thing. With the addition of the guilt face and the lip biting, it was possibly worse. When Melanie was right about to open her mouth to reveal whatever this 'something' was, Wanda felt an odd vibration in her arm. It was near her elbow, inside her pencil case.

_I didn't put my phone in the pencil case._

She quickly unzipped the little canvas bag, and sought out a phone that was completely alien to her. A name was flashing up on the screen, with text underneath.

**Jodi: Your bro's not staying over. Just a heads up. Btw, dinner at 7. **

_Ian's phone?_

Melanie knew she was too much of a goodie-goodie to keep her phone on at school times. Her forehead creased. "Who is it?"

It was impossible to lie to her. Not Melanie. "It's not even my phone."

"Well then whose is it?" she saw Wanda's hesitation to answer and snatched it. She rushed to tell her before she found out herself.

"It's Ian's." Wanda murmured.

"Who's-" she stopped mid-phrase. "Wait, _what_?"

_Oh dear._

"The new guy."

"What the hell are you doing with his things?"

"We had History together. Must have taken it by accident."

"Oh god. Don't tell me you were one of his welcoming bitches."

Wanda didn't appreciate the terminology. "No, we were just partners in class."

"What were you doing partnering up with _that guy_?"

"I didn't have much of a choice, he was sat next to me."

"Wanda, he's a sadistic, crazy, promiscuous little bastard. Just like his brother."

Ian had told her a great deal about his brother, and from what she knew, he'd been dating his girlfriend Jodi for about four years now. Didn't seem like the promiscuous type to her, but he would probably agree on sadistic and crazy.

"I don't even know him. I don't know why you're getting worked up about it."

"He tried to _kill you_."

"When we were 5." she said, plainly.

"I'll give him his phone back," Melanie slipped it into her pocket.

Wanda didn't like the arrangement at all. "Mel, please be nice. He was nothing less than a gentleman."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"Melanie," she moped.

"I'm sick and tired of you getting tangled with the wrong people." She stoop up. "I've had enough of Lacey, and I sure as hell don't want any crap from an O'Shea."

"I'll stay away from him, Mel," she bargained. "Just let me return it to him."

"Nuh-uh. He needs to hear some things from me."

"Melanie it's his first day, the last thing he needs is some girl's older sister threatening him for no reason at all." She gave Mel her best googly eyes.

"Don't look at me like that." Mel refused to meet her eyes.

"We don't even know each other, honestly," she gushed. "He just sat next to me, and left his phone and that's all. He didn't try to hit on me, or hurt me, or pull my hair or anything. He'll freak out a little bit if a stranger just shows up to give it to him." Melanie accidentally looked right into her eyes.

Two seconds. Four seconds. Five seconds. "Fine. _Fine_. Take it before I change my mind."


	5. Oddly Eventful

CHAPTER 4

**ODDLY EVENTFUL**

Throughout the day Wanda made unsuccessful attempts to return Ian's phone to him.

There was always someone either trying to flirt with him, talking to him about sports and the tryouts, or Lacey lurking around. It was apparent that the world didn't want them near each other. If that's what it meant to avoid conflict, Wanda was more than ready. But she really didn't want him to think she'd been holding on to his things as some sort of memorabilia like the other girls would. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea, which everyone was always getting about everything she did in this stupid school.

_I just want to give him his stuff and back the hell off._

There were two periods today after lunch, none of which she had with Ian. Afterschool, she thought Ian would already be home but decided to check the gym and the fields, just in case.

She found the gym full of girls in short skirts, concentrating on creating a human pyramid. Melanie had quit this cheerleading nonsense years ago, so the coach was a little taken aback when she saw Wanda. Since the gym was occupied, there was no use sticking around so she immediately made her way to the one place she hadn't looked.

She didn't want to go to the bleachers. She really didn't, but she made her way towards it anyway. The girls didn't like her. The boys really didn't like her, so she thought. Well, she couldn't tell, honestly. The girls made it apparent, giving her looks of disgust, pushing her around, every now and then. The boys probably thought she was too disgusting to even look at. She hadn't yet found an explanation for the ones who touched her in weird places, but there was probably a logical reason for that.

With all the heavy books in her hand, she put her school bag onto the ground, in the corner of the field. No one was practising yet, most of the guys playing around with the soccer balls, trying to bounce them on their heads, or their chests. She saw Jared talking to Reid, standing a good distance away from the group of guys chatting with Ian.

She decided it would be best if she spoke to him, and trusted him to hand it to Ian.

As Wanda made her way farther into the field, she did attract a little bit of attention, mostly from the boys playing solo. No one ever actually saw her afterschool unless she was picking up Melanie. This was a rare sighting.

"Jared!" she shout-whispered from near the bleachers. "JARED!"

Reid hit his arm and pointed at her, until Jared walked towards her, saying "What is it?"

The phone was in her cardigan pocket, and it took a little bit of effort getting it out with the books in her hand.

"It's Ian's phone. He left it in my pencil case." she shoved it into his palm, and he knew what to do.

Jared knew her well enough to know she would never actually approach an almost-stranger around a group of people who never even spoke to her. That would be suicide.

"Okay, I'll give it to him." He put it in the pocket of his shorts. Thankfully he only watched her with curiosity and didn't ask her as to why she had it. "Mel's home?"

"No," she answered. "Out for a run, I'm guessing. Got a race coming up."

"So who's your ride home?" he looked around the field for the signs of another person.

"No one," she shrugged. "I'm walking."

Jared looked at her like she was kidding. "With those books?"

"Yeah." she'd done it before.

"I don't think so," he reproved. "Wait here 'til I get my keys."

Jared wasn't really her friend, more of family now, so there was no surprise at his offer.

"Wait – Jared – No! How are you going to get home?" she didn't like having to raise her voice in front of these people. Even if she was semi-whispering.

"One of these guys!" He said, arching his head just a little bit while sprinting towards the locker rooms that were close by.

This was beyond uncomfortable. She leaned against the railings of the bleachers. She could now feel too many eyes on her, too many whispers about her, and far too many people judging her right now. She wished she couldn't hear their conversations, but she did, and she did her best to pretend that she couldn't hear them, and stared at her nails.

"Wanda has a boyfriend?" she could hear Ian asking. She didn't know what expression he was wearing, but his tone didn't reveal much. He seemed to be asking this normally, but something else was definitely there.

"Naw, bro," Andy answered him. "She's off limits."

"What do you mean?" she could hear Andy saying something about Lacey and social suicide, and maybe she heard Melanie's name, but she couldn't be sure. He mumbled something about her being one of the Untouchables.

"What's she doing taking Jared's car then?" Ian asked. She didn't like him asking so many questions about her.

"He's screwing her sister, Melanie. Probably going to drop by there, anyway." Andy chuckled now. "Why, you interested?"

"She's nice. Normal."

Wanda didn't know what to make of this. Everyone knew she was nice, but that was the first time anyone had called her normal. He hadn't said anything about him having any interest, so that was good. No conflict there. He didn't care about her, so she wouldn't have to care about him.

But she sure as hell wanted to.

"You clearly haven't met her, then." Andy replied. This time she looked up to see Ian's expression, which was not happy. "Hugs trees and stuff. Picks up random dogs and takes them to the vet. Travels a lot. Chick's far from normal."

"She's exotic, okay?" someone else said. It was that Aaron guy.

"Trying to justify your fantasies, are you?"

Wanda didn't believe her ears. She couldn't tell if Aaron was agreeing with the fact she was weird, or whether he was defending her. But either way, people only fantasized about one thing, when it came to Wanda.

_Oh God. Aaron has exotic fantasies about killing me._

"Screw you, Andy." Aaron retorted. "She's standing right there."

"You're right. Better tell her about that time you and her were on the desk -"

_Aaron has fantasies about killing me on a desk._

"Shut up!" she heard a thump and then Andy groan. Someone had thrown a soccer ball on his face.

_There are people who have killed me in their dreams._

When Jared came back, handing her the keys, it was apparent she'd failed at keeping a straight face. He could tell she was clearly disturbed.

"Are you sure you don't want to just wait for me to drive you home?" He showed concern. It was because of this – this caring, concern – that she once really liked this boy.

"No thank you, I'd very much like to get out of the way of people who want to kill me."

Jared chuckled. "What are you on about?"

"I don't know if you've heard, but Aaron has secret fantasies about killing me. Plus, these guys keep looking at me."

Jared was laughing now, laughing deep laughs from his stomach, with his eyes closed. She didn't find this funny. "Is _that _what you think?" She didn't understand his reaction, so she said nothing. "Wanda, these guys don't hate you."

"Nope. They more than just _hate _me."

Jared was near tears now. "You're so clueless sometimes, it's not even funny." Jared laughed harder.

"Actually it is funny. It's _too_ funny."

"I don't see the joke."

"Wanda, these guys stare at you because they think you're-"

"_Howe!_" The coach called out. "You better put your game face on, _right. This. Instant._"

She gave him her goodbyes, and walked out of there as fast as she could. She didn't feel safe until she got into the car. When she was in the drive way, she thought she was going to be sick.

When she got home, she jumped into bed, and pulled the sheets over her head. Under the covers, she checked her Facebook notifications from her phone, and noticed one notification, and one message.

She checked the single notification, inviting her to Barbecue Night at school.

_More awkward social events. The joy._

She knew I'd never end up going, but she had a feeling Melanie would try to drag her there.

Then she decided to check her messages, and was surprised to see it was from old friend.

**Benedict 'Burns' Flowers: See you at Barbecue Night.**

Well, she wouldn't really call him much of a friend. He was Lacey's cousin, afterall, and she had to stay away from him too. But the fact he was coming to Barbecue Night surprised she, because he wasn't back from Tucson in months. What was he doing here?

It shouldn't matter to her much, because she wasn't going.

She closed the Facebook application, and decided to go to sleep, without touching her homework. She didn't care, because she just wanted to pretend I was in the desert now, without people, friends, bullies, family, school or anyone getting in the way of her peace. All of this seemed like too much for one day. It had been oddly eventful, but still odd enough to tire her.


	6. A Proposition

CHAPTER 5

**A PROPOSITION**

Jeb and Jamie had come by, as a little surprise, the day after Wanda got the invite for Barbecue Night.

That was a month ago.

The days had gone by uneventfully, with an extra load of homework, far too many tests, and mundane social conversations. They'd finished Macbeth in English, but the girls were not even close to being done with the Ian O'Shea chapter. With Barbecue Night coming to a close, there was constant chirping about who would take who, especially Ian.

They were on good terms as usual, and he didn't feel obliged to talk to her outside History class. That kept Lacey off her back, as well as Melanie, and she couldn't be happier. His date to Barbecue Night was Paige, from English, because Andy had a thing with his parents the very same night. They were going as friends. Yep. Wanda was absolutely thrilled.

Speaking of Barbecue Night, and dates, Burns had called her a week ago, to ask her to be his plus one.

"I can't Burns," she whined.

"I already told Lacey to back off."

"But you know she picks on me anyway."

"I'll make sure she doesn't."

"But Burns-"

"No buts. You know I can't go to Barbecue Night without having a date from your school."

_No one asked you to go anyway_, she wanted to say, but that would be rude.

Those were the highlights of her entire month. But she guessed she'd forgotten the part where Ian texted her to thank her about returning his phone. No one ever thanked her in her entire life, so that was obviously important to her.

**Ian: Jared gave me your number so I could thank you. Well, thanks. I hope you're not creeped.**

**Wanda: Of course not. You're welcome, really.**

**Ian: You could have given it to me yourself. I would have thanked you in person.**

**Wanda: The soccer field doesn't favour me.**

**Ian: I could tell. You should have seen your face.**

**Wanda: I tried my best not to give it away.**

**Ian: You failed. Thanks again.**

**Ian: Y'know, Jared was telling me about your sister the other day.**

**Ian: I'm sorry if I was any trouble.**

**Ian: I'm really sorry.**

Apologies were no less rare. She knew he was a good guy, and worthy of being a friend, and a good friend at that, but it would never work out. Not with all _this_.

That was the point where she'd stopped replying. She was uncomfortable with him bringing up Melanie and her issues with him. She didn't want to be a part of his mess, and he got the message, when she refused to reply to four of his texts. He made no attempt of conversing with her, so he understood the hint. She caught him looking at her, all the way from his locker, while she was looking for her books, but that was all.

Today, though, was another story. Walter was giving them their History papers back, and she'd manage to scrape by with an A minus.

"Damn, this subject," Lily was saying. "Can't even get _one _A."

"You're whining about a C+?" Wes replied. "Man, I've never even seen the letter B in his handwriting." They shook their heads.

"How'd you do, Wanda?" Lily asked her. She couldn't help it, she turned red. She wanted to tell them how amazing this was, but didn't want to spoil the mood. Her paper, which was peeking out of her folder, was snagged by Ian, who was sitting next to her.

"A minus." He said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Dayum." Lily and Wes chorused. They reached out for it, and stared at it in awe. She looked at her hands, humiliated. She didn't know what they were thinking, but really wished they weren't thinking at all, because it was probably something about her.

"To give you guys an ego boost," Ian began saying, "I failed."

He showed them his paper with a big red F on it.

And that brings us back to the actual incident. Today, when Wanda was standing in line for lunch, he decided to approach her.

"I need a tutor," he whispered into her ear. Lacey was all the way in the far corner, so they was safe. Melanie was in her usual make-out spot with Jared. Ian was being clever about this.

"For?" she asked.

"History." They moved ahead into the queue.

"Why are you telling me?" They silently picked up their trays.

"Because you're the best at it. I need your help."

"You know I can't do that."

She handed her tray to the lunch lady, who loaded it with mashed potatoes and gravy. "Lacey will never know."

"Melanie will." She carefully selected the chicken piece she wanted.

"You don't have to tell her."

She ignored him and sat on the nearest empty table she could find. Ian hadn't gotten a tray, and just decided to follow her.

"Why are you really refusing, Wanda?" She could see Lacey looking at them. _This is not good. _"Is it because I asked Jared for your number?"

_I don't even care about that._

"It's because I really don't have the time to."

_You mean, you don't want to._

"You're lying."

_Well, he caught on to that. He'll be a pretty fast learner_, a part of her said.

_Stop finding reasons to help him, _another part of her argued.

"Promise me you'll think about it?" Ian said, touching her arm, hopeful.

"I'll think about it," she rushed, just so he'd leave her alone. He saw the attention she was getting from the people around the room.

He understood, whispered, "Thank you thank you thank you," and left.

She told Melanie about the idea.

"I thought I told you he was bad news?" was what Melanie had to say. Wanda gave her a look of disapproval. "Fine, fine, fine. I don't pick your friends. Boundaries and all that crap. I get it. Still not saying I like it."

"I'm not saying I like it either." she responded, taking a bite out of her bread, while sitting on the counter. There was barely any left, because Melanie had eaten all of it.

She was helping herself a lot these days. The races were really stressing her out. This was her third packet of Cheetos.

"I like that Burns kid." Of course Melanie liked him. He went to an expensive private school in Tucson.

"He's okay." she mumbled, she mouth full of bread.

"You should go out with him." Wanda spat her bread out of her mouth. "I ain't cleaning that up."

"Shut up, Melanie. No. Not happening. Never."

"I'm not cleaning up crap that's been inside your mouth."

"_Not that_." she snapped. "_Burns_, I'm not going out with Burns."

"Sure you're not, Mrs. Flowers," she teased. "He called today asking if you were still up for Barbecue Night. He couldn't reach your phone." Wanda opened her mouth, but Melanie cut her off. "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. You're going, and that's that."

"But, Mel, I don't want to go with him." Wanda sulked.

"You just don't want to go in general. Don't make this about him. I don't even know why you try lying to me."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Anyway, get your coat." Melanie said, getting up from the couch.

"Why?"

"We're going shopping, loser. Can't let you go on your date wearing something like _that_."

"_It is not a date._"


	7. Barbecue Catastrophe

A/N: So I realized I was posting the edits without changing the Prologue. How incredibly stupid of me. If you have any confusions, refer back to my first chapter. No wonder people complained about this not making sense. ALSO, I CANNOT MAKE THIS ANY CLEARER.

**THE STORY IS STILL THE SAME. THE NARRATION IS DIFFERENT.**

* * *

CHAPTER 6  
**BARBECUE CATASTROPHE**

Melanie was so happy with the sundress she bought Wanda, that she decided she had enough money to change her entire wardrobe: so she bought her near twenty.

If all of this wasn't being purchased on sale in a thrift store, Wanda would have freaked. She did freak, actually, but she would have walked out without a word. It took her less than eighty dollars, which was still a lot. But it was an amazing bargain for twenty-freaking-dresses.

_This is what Melanie decides to do with her adult life._

She came home and threw out all of Wanda's old clothes. She spared her skirts though, which Wanda'd bought from Jakarta, and held onto as a souvenir. She still didn't want her wearing them.

She didn't say anything, because this was not the first time she had a crazy impulse. Once, in ninth grade, she'd replaced all of Aunt Maggie's weird mug collection with a bunch of expensive art she stole from the Art College in Tucson.

The only time she did sulk was the hour before Barbecue Night. She insisted Wanda go without a cardigan, which she wouldn't agree to because of two reasons.

"It's cold outside, and I don't like spaghetti straps."

"Wanda, you need to show some leg."

"I'm showing more leg than I've ever shown. My cardigans aren't affecting leggage."

"In a manner of speaking." She slapped her forehead. "God. There's no convincing you is there?"

"I let you buy me a completely new wardrobe. What are you even trying to say?"

Melanie accepted defeat, because she made sense. "Do whatever you want. Just remember what I taught you, okay?"

Wanda blushed, remembering her briefing on flirtation. Then she was furious with her. "Firstly, this is not a freaking date, secondly making me do all this is not letting me do what I want, and thirdly – This. Is. Not. A. Date."

She wished she could have said the same thing, when Burns called their landline on speaker. "Ready for our date?"

She grabbed her cardigan and stormed out the door, manic, shouting to herself, "_Ugh!_ _It's not a date_!"

* * *

Regardless of what Wanda said, everyone treated it like a date. Everyone. Not just Burns, who made constant attempts to put his hand on her hip – every freaking person there looked at her, and looked at him, and looked back at her, and looked back at him, feeling sorry that he had to drag her here.

"I like the dress." He whispered into her ear. His hands were trying to sneak into unspeakable places.

she shuddered. "You look sexy."

"You sound drunk. How much of the spiked punch did you have?"

Lacey did not look their way, and the only reason she was even sticking around next to him after he'd said that was to show her gratitude, glad he'd actually taken care of it and kept his word.

But she was not spared by the other girls. Most of them were debating whether or not she'd paid Burns to make him show, or she'd stolen the dress she was wearing. Pathetic. Melanie was picking up Jared, so she had no one to shut them up.

"Oh, _screw off_. Like you're any better than the person you're bitching about," someone said, and she recognized it as Ian's voice.

He'd been looking at her for a while now, when she was sat next to the bonfire, and he was rather unhappy about something. A few moments later she realized he wasn't looking _at her_, but at the hands around her bare shoulders. She'd taken her cardigan off because of the heat, and hadn't noticed Burns sneaking them around her. She now shrugged him off, realizing, and he looked concerned.

"Do you want to walk in the woods?" Burns asked. She nodded because the girls were still speaking in hushed tones about her, even after Ian's outburst.

When they were a good distance away, Burns tried to grab a part of her body which was probably the last place she wanted to be grabbed. Her cardigan was in her hand, and she threw it at him, with force.

"What is _with _you?" he shouted.

"With _me_?" she questioned. "What is with all this touching?"

"Jeez, you're like the worst kind of late bloomer. I don't even know why I'm trying."

"I don't know either." she didn't like raising her voice. "Burns, I came here out of social obligation. Not to spark anything."

"I'm not here to spark anything either," he said, grabbing her shoulder, and moving one of the spaghetti straps down her arm. He then shoved her against a tree, taking hold of her entire body. She was disgusted.

"Trust me I'm doing you a favor," he whispered into her ear, finding his way around the zipper of her dress. "You're a fucking child!"

She squirmed under his grip."You're a perverted freakshow!"

All of a sudden, Burns' head bashed forward, from the result of an unseen force. "And you're drunk." the figure whispered. Through the little light of the full moon, Wanda could see the vivid blue of his eyes. She wasn't surprised.

"We'd better get out of here." he said, grabbing her arm.

They walked away from the immobile figure lying on the ground as fast as they could. When they made it to the bonfire, everyone had already started helping themselves to the barbecued food. She searched for Melanie, but didn't stick around waiting for her.

"Ian can you drive me back home?" He began walking towards the parking lot.

"Of course."

She got inside the shotgun side as soon as he opened the door. She didn't care what his car looked like, didn't care he was driving her home, didn't care he would ask her questions. She didn't care about anything other than getting home and hiding under the covers.

Ian quickly climbed into the driver's side, and started the engine, and the sound was alarmingly loud. This car had definitely seen a few years.

When Ian started driving, he looked at Wanda, expecting her to burst into tears.

Instead, she laughed. She laughed so hard, it startled him. He must have thought she was probably crazy.

"So you were almost taken advantage of by a psycho-freak," Ian noted. "And you're laughing. That's normal."

"No, it's just," she was interrupted with a snort. She blushed having snorted in front of Ian. "You tried to kill me – and now you're protecting me."

He chuckled along with me now. "It's a strange world."

"The strangest."

There was silence as they thought of this. Wanda hadn't thought about it this way, the fact Ian had _saved _her. It's only when she said it aloud that she realized how much she owed it to him. At that moment, her ringtone saved her from the extended silence.

"Wanda, you left before we even got here!" It was Lily's voice on the other side.

"I know – something came up." she murmured thinking, it was a lot more than just something.

"Anyway, Wes and I were thinking if you could show tomorrow afterschool? We could eat something first, and then there's that History test we could study for."

"Sorry, Lil," she replied, looking at Ian now. "I'll be busy tutoring somebody."

Ian smiled when he heard this.

Lily said she and Wes would miss her, and she responded saying, maybe another time. Ian didn't thank her or even bring it up. He only just smiled selfishly, taking all of it in.

When he did speak up, it was completely off-topic. "You have a nice snort."

Wanda blushed again. "Stop it."

"It's not even a snort actually, because it's more of a 'khee' sound from your throat." He emulated the noise she'd made earlier.

"Ian," she grumbled.

He chuckled and made the noise again, as they drove away.


	8. Study Date

CHAPTER 7

**STUDY DATE**

Burns got into heaps of trouble after Ian had told Melanie of the incident, without sparing any details. Apparently he'd been watching Wanda the entire night, and had known something was up the moment he heard someone scream.

Ian volunteered to vouch for her and she didn't protest; this would be a lesson for Melanie.

The next day, Jared took his friends to beat the crap out of him, which Wanda did not approve of. Nonetheless, he'd learnt his lesson and had even confessed to it after three kicks to the groin. For this, Lacey could not create a cover-up with her lies. She had tried though, the same night, she updated her Facebook status saying, "Can't believe some person tried to take advantage of my cousin" and a day later, Wes had commented saying "Lol, dumb bitch, he confessed to everything". The comment got more likes than the status itself, so she eventually took it down.

Over the next few days, complete strangers came up to her at school to ask if she was okay. Word traveled fast in Picacho Peak. She usually wouldn't like the attention, especially not for this reason, because it felt like she was taking advantage of it, but she sure did feel accepted in this place, right now.

Paige, who wouldn't so much as look at Wanda, spoke to her in English class.

"Heard what happened – what's being done?" she asked, conversationally.

It took her a moment to answer. "I'm getting a restraining order. His parents called and apologized. Told me he was going to be under medical care for a while."

"Shitheads like him should be in freaking jail," the other girl who sat close to Paige, said. "Sorry, couldn't help but listen in."

"I know, they're such freaks, Gosh." Paige agreed. "Thank God, Ian got there in time."

The other girl was interested by this. "Ian's an absolute hero."

"He is," Wanda agreed. "He's a great guy."

"You're, Wanda right? I'm Violetta. How have we never spoken before?"

And that was the part where she launched into her life story, and the history of her travels. She was careful to avoid the bit about being orphaned, because she could only accept so much pity for one day.

It wasn't just these girls that had changed – it was Melanie too. On the same night, after Ian left, she looked at Melanie without actually saying 'I told you so' but she got it.

"Okay, _fine_. You don't have to say it. I was wrong. You were right."

"_I like this Burns guy,_" she mimicked her tone. Or tried to, at least. "_Ian's bad news. You should stay away from him._"

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Okay, first, I do not sound like that. And second, you don't have to rub it in."

"Of course I have to rub it in. Overprotective Mel couldn't protect me. This moment in history should be commemorated."

"Shouldn't you be in your room, feeling traumatized about all this?"

"I'd rather stick around here, to watch the guilt take over you."

The rest of the night, they watched TV to look past the messed up situation. They didn't dare tell Jeb, because he'd probably shoot the guy, and neither did Aunt Maggie, from the looks of it, because Jeb hadn't called or skyped with them in ages. She didn't care about what happened to her, which was a good thing considering their situation.

Despite what happened last night, Was was at her happiest right now. She was so happy with that she even took up the courage to wait for Ian near the soccer field, with all the guys watching her. Andy came up to her give her a pat on the back, and Aaron gave her a small smile from the corner of the field. A guy named Brandt, someone she'd never even met before, had come up to tell her what a squealing bastard Burns was, and that he actually cried when he beat him up.

Wanda was horrified by this, naturally, but Brandt assured her they fixed him up and didn't leave him lying on the ground like Ian and she did. She watched as Ian explained – lied – to his coach about the incident, and how he had to act as a witness for the court order.

He told her he had to change out of his shorts, and then Jared came up to talk to her.

"Always told Melanie she picks on the wrong guys," he said.

"Mmm-hmm. Same." she agreed.

"So where are you going with Ian?" he asked, and he was careful before asking, "Date?"

She wasn't taken aback, but just chuckled to spare him. "I'm tutoring him."

_It'll be a while before I'm okay with 'dates', Jar._

"Mel knows?"

"At this point, I don't think she has to. I told her I might, just haven't told her I agreed to do it."

Jared nodded, taking this in. He squinted as Ian made his way towards me. "You know he cares about you, for a guy you barely even speak to."

"Who?"

"Ian."

"Oh. Yeah. He's great like that, isn't he? He cares about people he doesn't really have to care about."

Jared sighed. "Not what I meant." He stood up now, and gave her a hand to help her up. "Enjoy the study date."

"I've said this too many times these past few days – It's not a date."

Ian had his schoolbag swung back on one arm, but no keys in the other. He put his hands in his pockets, and she half expected him to produce keys in his hands, but they stayed there. He had something of a surprise planned for her.

"We're walking?"

Ian shook his head, still walking to the parking lot. When they got there, he did get his key out of the bag, but they weren't walking towards a car.

What they stood next to was a shiny, red Vespa, and Wanda recognized the make because she'd seen hundreds of them in Paris, and had even told Ian one History class about how much she adored them. He'd only smiled knowingly, but he'd never actually told her he owned one.

He moved forward, and got the helmet out of the storage compartment underneath the seat. He put his bag there now, and reached out for hers, and she handed it to him.

"It was my Grandad's," he said, putting his helmet on. "You like it?"

"I love it." She wished she could have been cooler about it, but she had to grin like an idiot.

He sat down in the front, kicking off the stand. He gestured for her to climb in. When she did, he said, "You need to hold on tight."

Wanda complied, but it did nothing to control her fits of giggles from the thrill of being able to ride one of these again.

She was still smiling when Ian and she walked up to his apartment. He told her his brother was staying over at Jodi's so there would be no disruptions.

When they entered, he lit up the room dimly, but enough for her to take in her surroundings. The carpeting was a dark blue, with a cosy little tan couch in the middle, and a dining table close by. Ian walked over to it, and dumped his bag there.

She put hers on the floor, near it. On top of the table was a huge bouquet, with a Thank You note on it. She deduced it was the one Melanie was picking out earlier this morning. He pointed to a red door behind them. There was an identical one right next to it.

"Mind if I clean up?" he asked softly, and she nodded, then he walked towards it. He started taking his jersey off and closed the door behind him. Wanda decided to sit down, and get her stationary and books out, and waited for a few seconds, before starting to read the chapter they were studying. She couldn't pay much attention to it, because she realized, this was it. This was the first time any of her friends invited her into their home. It felt much like a strange new world but – homey. She could imagine herself here, watching TV on the small couch, looking for food in the cupboard next to the table.

She couldn't help herself from looking around the room, her eyes flitting from picture to picture. She could see quite a few pictures of Jodi and his brother, and then she came across a picture from his childhood. She knew this was him, because she'd seen this boy. She'd seen this boy with the blue eyes looking at her like Ian sometimes peeked at her from his locker. He was standing next to a beautiful dark haired woman.

When Ian was out, he was wearing a dark coloured shirt, and smelled of deodorant. She looked at him for a long time, thinking he must have gotten his good looks from that dark haired woman in the picture. He found this a little strange, but not alarming. She looked away.

"Shall we?" he asked, taking a seat and gesturing towards the book.

"We shall."


	9. At the O'Shea's

CHAPTER 8

**AT THE O'SHEA'S**

Ian may have been athletic, but he seemed to be quite a lazy student. When it came to studying, he avoided the prime requisite that would allow him to pass.

"You're supposed to read the book, Ian," Wanda reproached. "That's like the first thing you do."

"It's written so _badly _though."

"Ian, if you wanna pass you read the book." Wanda almost pushed it into him.

"But but but-"

"No buts. You want my help, you do what I say," she only discovered this dominating side of hers as she said those words.

When Ian was bored he was also quite easily distracted.

"Hey, Wanda?" he said, staring deeply into her eyes. Wanda sat with her hand on her cheek. "Do you ever watch the sky until it matches the colour of you mood?"

She wanted to say, Y_es, I do exactly that_, but instead settled for "Keep reading."

It was only at the end of the day that she figured out how you had to teach Ian O'Shea. She quizzed him on what he'd read, and most of the answers he knew, but sometimes required help. When she asked him a second time, though, he never forgot.

"Hitler's death anniversary?" he looked up at her, disappointment shining through his blue eyes.

She touched his arms, trying to motivate him. He took notice of the touch. "You know this, Ian." I looked right into his eyes.

He exhaled loudly. "A little hint?" she shook her head. "Nineteen Forty… Something."

"Yes, you're close."

"Five?"

"Yes!" Wanda exclaimed, touching his hand now. "You can do this, Ian."

"I can?"

"Yes, you can!" she squeezed his hand. "Just remember to read the book. You can't be lazy about this. Just read it."

He nodded to himself, looking at it.

At that moment, Wanda's pencil case buzzed, and she searched for her phone. It was a text from Mel.

**Melanie: At Jared's. Not coming home.**

She replied back instantly.

**Wanda: K. I'll be out then.**

**Melanie: Where are you?**

**Wanda: Out.**

Melanie didn't need to know _everything _about her.

"Time to go home?" Ian guessed.

"Well," Wanda creased her nose. "Sort of. Drop me off at a diner?"

He seemed rather interested in this. "Meeting someone?"

"Um, no. Melanie's gonna be out, so I might as well have dinner outside."

Ian looked at her like she was kidding. "You're planning on eating alone? You're joking, right?"

Wanda shook her head. "Why, what's wrong with that?"

"Why would I let you eat alone, when you could have dinner with us?"

"Who's _us_?"

"Me, my brother, and Jodi."

"Are you…" She trailed off, searching for words. "Inviting me to dinner? With your family?"

"Why not? If you're gonna eat out, you might as well eat something good." Ian was searching for his phone now, in his school bag. He started typing a text. "Jodi likes dinner at 7. We'll have to wait for an hour."

"Wait, we're going over to Jodi's?"

"She loves meeting new people."

_This is going to be beyond awkward._

"I can't just barge in on them, like that."

"Trust me, you're not. I just told her I'm bringing a friend."

"But, Ian…" she protested.

She protested to it throughout the Vespa ride too. She protested while they made their way up to the fourth floor, to Jodi's. She even protested right before Jodi opened the door. But the warm smell of lasagne made her stomach growl. She could no longer protest, and she hated her stomach for doing this to her.

Jodi had a lovely home, nice and cosy, with wooden floors. It was much bigger than Kyle's place, and much more plush and expensive. Picacho Peak didn't have very many posh places, but this had to be one of them, because the apartment was undoubtedly fancy, with intricate moulding all around the ceiling, and even a minibar near the balcony.

"You must be Wanda!" Jodi exclaimed, far too enthusiastic. She was a hugger too, and pulled her into a tight one. Ian entered, going inside one of the rooms. "Ian's told me a bit about you."

"I'm sure he has," Wanda tried to smile as Jodi led her into the dining room. Yes, she had a separate _room_ for _eating_. Jodi motioned for her to sit, and she complied, launching nearly a million questions about the incident with Burns, leaving Wanda with no chance to answer them because moments later Ian walked in with Kyle.

She stood up, obligingly, and straightened out her dress. "Hello, Wanda," he said to her as if he'd rehearsed this. "You are not Ian's significant other, you are his friend-" Ian smacked his arm, and he chuckled and kept talking. "Okay, sorry, hey Wanda. This guy's my kid brother. Personally I don't see a resemblance. I'm Kyle."

He gave her his hand, and she shook it, well slightly, because she was afraid it would engulf hers. He was really big, and she disagreed with his earlier statement. The resemblance between the brothers was scary. Ian was slightly lankier. Kyle was big and buff and huge. And he was twice her height.

"I heard he punched the shit out of the guy who tried to – will you stop hitting me, faggot? God, okay, I'll fix my language. Sheesh." It seemed as if Ian and Kyle could communicate with only their dazzling blue eyes, silently and wordlessly.

"Ian told me you peed on a red truck," Wanda blabbered, nervously, and instantly clasped her hand over her mouth.

_Stupid word vomit._

Kyle chuckled. "I like her already."

Dinner was a lot less awkward than her first meeting with Kyle and Jodi. By the time they'd finished half of Jodi's lasagne, Kyle already knew the nine places Wanda'd lived in before. Four foster homes, and five different countries.

"Man, these Robinsons sound like absolute _bitches_," Ian cleared his throat. Kyle paid him no mind. "Good on you, Wanda. Although you should have run away from them sooner. Good-for-nothing fuckheads."

"I agree," she mumbled, digging in. Jodi's cooking was a thousand times better than Lucina's diner. Wanda could have sworn she made the eggs rubbery on purpose.

"So, Wanda, have you been thinking about college?" Jodi asked. "Ian's thinking of Cornell."

She widened her eyes at Ian, having no idea he was this ambitious. He shrugged. "Ivy League? Wow, I'd love to, even have the grades for it, but I couldn't afford it. Probably going to a state school."

"Don't be ridiculous, Wanda." Jodi shook her head, getting up with her empty plate in her hand. "My sister, Sunny, knows a great financial aid company. I'm sure we can sort something out."

She was flattered by her offer, she really was. His family was so welcoming. "I guess I still have time."

"So have you decided what you want to be?"

"Well, I like to travel." she chewed some lasagne before continuing. "I'd like to tell stories about that, maybe. Write about it. Or even teach." She looked at Ian now, and they shared knowing looks with one another.

"Wanda here's something of a History expert." Ian told them.

"Hated History," Kyle started. "Whoever gets it is a fucking genius. Wanda you're fucking gold."

"Language, Kyle." Jodi reprimanded, all the way from the kitchen, doing the dishes.

Wanda interjected. "I don't really care,"

Ian shook his head. "It's not because of you, Wanda. Kyle got fired recently, because he called his boss a 'syphilis infested cumwad'."

Kyle snickered. "The actual reason I got fired was because I told him he was so fat, the last time he saw 90210 was on a scale. That and the fact I said he was the afterbirth of a bohemian butt-fuck."

Ian could only roll his eyes at Kyle's gloating. "Keep talking, someday you'll say something intelligent."

"I've met decomposed bodies that are more offensive than you, Ian."

"I don't exactly hate you Kyle, but you should know that if you were on fire and I had a bucket of water, I'd probably drink it."

"Ouch, that broke my heart into itty-bitty pieces."

"You should do some soul-searching, brother. Maybe you'll find one."

"Ian, if you want a fight, lets do it like men. Without your pokemon and your feelings, you fucking nerd."

"Guys, enough!" Jodi yelled, entering the room. "Ian sit next to your brother. I'm instagramming."

"Jodeee," they moped, simultaneously.

"Wanda, you get in between them, if that's what it'll take." She was slightly surprised by this. _Me? A picture? With Ian and his brother? Online? In public? For everyone to see?_

She sat next to Kyle, though, nonetheless. She motioned for Ian to sit next to her. He did, and Jodi held her phone in place for a second, and took the picture. They loosened up and let go of the fake smiles.

"What's your facebook, Wanda?" Jodi asked, tapping her phone. "I can't tell with all the foster homes and the running away."

"Stryder. Wanda Stryder."

_Please don't tag me._

"Okay, I've tagged you."

_Ugh, this is bad._

"Suggest me as a friend," Kyle chirped. "This girl is entertaining."

Wanda smiled at this. "Lets take one of you and Ian then, Wanda." Jodi suggested. She shrugged, not really keen on the idea. She moved closer to him, while he awkwardly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. When Jodi took the picture, she let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Seconds later, Wanda was yawning and looked at the clock. Ten forty-five. She'd been here almost five hours!

"Ian, you have to take me home," she demanded.

"Aww," Kyle whined. "So soon?"

Wanda nodded, rushing to put on her cardigan. Her bag was still in the Vespa, so she tugged at Ian's shirt so he'd get up.

"I had a great time, Jodi." she started putting on her shoes. "Nice meeting you, Kyle! Dinner was great!" she pushed open the front door. "Kthanksbye!"

She took Ian's arm, hurrying down the stairs, almost tripping. He grabbed a hold of her and took her hand.

Their ride home was silent, because she liked enjoying the wind blow onto her face. It was night, so it was especially cold, so she held onto Ian even tighter. He held her hand while they went up to her apartment this time too, scared she'd lose her balance again.

He walked her all the way to her door, and without a word, she hugged him. She pulled him into a tight embrace, because he deserved it. He'd made her feel more at home in one night, than she had the past seventeen years.

"Thank you thank you thank you" she gushed, and then let him go. Wanda unlocked the door, turned the lights on and rushed inside. "I had fun."

"Me too." He smiled. She watched him walk down the stairs. When he was gone, se shut the door, and opened the window, remembering something. She could see the Vespa, and waited until she saw Ian approaching it.

"And read the book!" Wanda shouted from the top of her voice.

"I will!" he shouted back. "I promise."

She shut the window, and covered it up with the curtains, sighing after the long day.

She could easily say today had been the best day of her entire life, spent with a boy she barely knew, and two complete strangers. Looking around the house, she felt alone, so she decided to check Facebook before going for a shower.

She had five notifications, two friend requests. The first was Jodi tagging her in two of the pictures. Then she accepted the requests from Kyle and Jodi, and noticed Kyle had instantly posted on her wall.

**Kyle O'Shea**

**You BETTER fucking show up again you little slut. ;)**

She laughed and liked the post. not didn't commenting because she wasn't sure. She'd love to meet them, but at the same time she felt a little strange. _Should I be this close to Ian's family?_ But Kyle was her friend – it didn't matter he was Ian's older brother. Another notification floated up, and she saw Jodi liked the post as well.

The rest of the notifications showed the people who liked the group picture, which Kyle also happened to comment on. The final notification showed how many people liked the picture of Ian and Wanda.

She clicked on the group picture first. It had gotten five likes. Kyle, two of Jodi's friends, another O'Shea, presumably Ian's mom, and Lily. She went to the second picture, which had come out nicer than Wanda thought it did, and a lot different than she expected. The picture showed her smiling, while Ian looked at her grinning, with his arm around her. She hadn't noticed what he was doing. The caption read, 'The master and his pupil' with several hashtags about 'cuteness' 'friendship' 'family' 'dinner' and 'tutelage' and whatnot. Kyle commented saying 'Caption sounds like a weird porno. Only my horny girlfriend would do this.' The comment got eight likes.

And the picture itself got eighteen.

_18 likes? In less than an hour?_

I checked the list, and most of them were people from my school. Paige, Violetta, Wes, Andy, Aaron, Brandt, another bunch of Ian's friends, Lily and some girls from Trig, Jamie, Reid, Jared, Lacey.

_Lacey._

This was definitely her sending Wanda a message.


	10. Author's Note

**SUPER IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE  
(I bolded out the important parts of this note. You don't necessarily need to read all of it unless you're confused.)**

So I've been getting an awful lot of reviews and messages, saying you guys are confused, and I completely understand why. Even I can't keep up with my whims. So here's the explanation for the common questions I'm getting:

**Why are you re-uploading the same chapters?**

Well, if you've been following closely, you'll notice that** I've been editing the story from scratch**.  
I've been updating with **the edited versions_.  
_**The changes I've made with the plot are subtle, and I have listed all of them on **Answer 3**.

**So why are you actually editing it NOW, before it's even been finished?**

Well, if you'd like to hear the whole story, here it is - I had a massive case of writer's block after chapter 12. I experimented too much and screwed up the storyline, blablabla, you'll get it when I'm done updating the old chapters. Bottom line - I was unhappy with where the story was going so I decided to change it. I know I'm confusing you, and I'm seriously sorry, but I'm the author, and before the readers, I think about myself. _Would I read this piece of crap? Nope! _So yeah, there you go.

**What are the changes you have made?**

1. I changed the story from Wanda's point of view, to the third person.

2. I completely rewrote the opening of the Prologue. You can go check it out.

3. I rewrote the ending of Chapter 9.

4. I added dialogues here and there, got rid of dialogues I found irrelevant, but the plot remains the same. You'll still be able to follow as long as you've **read the end of Chapter 9**. If you want, you could read the Prologue, but it's mostly an explanation for why Melanie and Wanda live alone.

**Why did you make these specific changes?**

1. I couldn't write an important part of the story in Wanda's point of view, because she wasn't there to witness the incident. I somehow had to include it and found no other way to deal with the problem.

2. I thought I needed to explain why Jeb and Jamie are not present and why Melanie gets to live alone, even though she's still at school.

3. Spoilers, sorry.

4. Sometimes I found the dialogue quite cheesy. I didn't like it so I got rid of it.


	11. Little Touch

A/N: A little heads-up -** these upcoming chapters are completely different from the earlier ones. This is not because I have changed the plot, but because I have changed around the sequence in which the events occur.** Should you have any queries, or any words to say, please PM me. Multiple reviews aren't permitted (unless they're anonymous) so that's the only way we can communicate. So if any confusions still persist, just send me a message.

* * *

CHAPTER 9  
**LITTLE TOUCH**

The sympathy period didn't last very long. It was to be expected that after garnering an actual place and uncloaking herself of her invisibility, that something bad would happen. Wanda thought it was a given in her life, for bad things to keep happening.

And today was full of them.

On one hand, she had that History test that she barely had any time to even revise for – on the other there was Melanie, judging her throughout the ride to school.

"I'm just saying," Melanie said. "I think there are smarter, more sensible guys out there."

"Please don't start a fight at the start of the day."

"I'm not _fighting, _I'm trying to have a constructive discussion with you."

"It's hardly a discussion, when all you're really doing is putting down my choice of friendships."

"Except _he _doesn't think this is a friendship, he's just trying to-"

"Use me?" Wanda cut in.

"Well, yeah."

Wanda thought about this for a moment, crossing her arms. "If he is, I don't really care, because I owe him my help."

"If you're going to be _professional _about this, then why are mingling with his goddamn _family_?"

"Because Ian's my friend." thankfully they'd reached the school parking lot. "And I accept my friends' invitations." She tried not to slam the car door, but the anger bled out of her.

_Why does she have to be so blind-eyed about every _friend _I make here?_

_He's my only friend anyway._

As it turned out, Wanda was not the only one suffering from unfair judgements. When Ian arrived to school that morning, his jock "friends" had decided that it would be funny to laugh at him simultaneously in one large group.

One of the dudes chimed in saying, "I didn't know 'freakshow' was your type, O'Shea."

"Frankly, Ian," Brandt now joined in, "Virgin-Queen Stryder is not the smartest choice for a rebound."

"Dating her is basically dating her sister," Dude no. 3 said. "Gross."

"Y'know we had this secret theory in the 7th grade she was an alien, right?"

"She'd just hug trees and stare at shit."

Aaron was caught in his own reverie. "I bet she's nuts in bed. She must put her energy somewhere."

"Yeah, into thinking about O'Shea's package. Seems the type." Brandt made suggestive noises in a girlish tone.

"Get a fucking life guys." Jared's cadence shut them right up. Ian walked past them to his locker, his hands fisted. "Try not to give a shit."

"I don't," Ian snapped.

"Is there really something going on?" Jared raised an eyebrow. Ian stopped at his locker. "She's my girlfriend's sister. We're practically family. I care."

"Naw, I just invited her over. She seems pretty lonely."

"Probably is. You're doing a good thing."

"Got any idea why Melanie hates me so much?"

Jared scratched his chin. "She thinks you were the one who threw Wanda in the ditch."

"In flipping kindergarten?"

"Yeah."

"And she's still holding onto that?" Frustrated, Ian smashed open his locker.

"She says it's cause of Kyle. He smashed her soccer trophies. Like three times."

"Well, I saved her sister from being a potential rape victim. And she's concerned about fucking _trophies._"

"Personally, I just think she's just trying too hard to be an adult."

"Why is that?"

"Well, her Uncle Jeb left a couple months ago and kept her in charge of the house. She's just trying to do what she thinks is best for Wanda."

"Keep her away from boys?"

"I guess."

"It's not even like I want to sleep with her or anything. I'm just... curious."

"About?"

"Who she really is."

"Quite the enigma, isn't she?"

The bell rang, and Ian rushed some books and pens out of his bag. "Sort of. She's hiding some interesting stories in there."

"Good to know." Jared started walking off. "Later, dude."

He figured that would be the end of it, some taunting, some warnings, a history test, and he would go home. But like Melanie, he'd been growing this sense of caring, this need to protect. Maybe he understood where Melanie was coming from, when he watched Wanda get teased by some of the boys. Up till now, he'd only watched her get picked on by the girls, about what she wore or how she looked, and knowing Wanda, she didn't really care too much about what they said.

But he got increasingly worried during lunch. Even _he _could hear what Brandt and Aaron were saying.

"O'Shea wants your body, Stryder." they laughed at their own "jokes", the morons they were. "Come out, come out, big girl."

Ian had every intention of knocking their teeth out – and he would.

Only if Melanie hadn't beat him to it. She kicked both of their groins, grabbed their heads, and bashed them together.

"Do _not _fuck with my sister." Melanie brushed the dust off her clothes. Wanda was nowhere to be seen. She was so gentle, she really was, and this made him worry. He had to find her. The back doors of the cafeteria were still swinging when he looked, and he ran the direction in which he felt he would be able to find her, alone for a change.

He didn't care about the remarks that flew past him as he ran. He only needed to make sure she was alright. He didn't see her near the lawn, nor the hallways, nor the lockers, so he decided to take a walk around the whole school.

He thought he'd looked everywhere, when a thought struck him. There was one place he hadn't looked. However unlikely it was for her to hide out there, he still felt the need to check. He walked down the familiar hall, running as he had on the first day. Not away, but towards – towards her.

He recognized the familiar door near the set of lockers he'd hid behind, the first day he'd met her. It was awfully quiet, so he almost didn't open the door.

But when he did, there she was, hiding inside the same classroom they had together, about three months ago. Holding her books protectively to her chest, hiding behind her golden locks. He could easily see the fear in her eyes.

"Wanda," Ian started, but an almost teary-eyed Wanda began shaking her head.

"I can't." she gulped.

"Wanda, honey-"

"No. I just can't," she moaned. "Leave me alone." her feet were on the floor, ready to shuffle out.

He grabbed her wrist. "I just want to help."

"Then _go away_."

He held onto her wrist for what felt like forever. She was going to burst, he could tell. He didn't want to see her cry. He didn't like the anger, the pushing away – couldn't she see that he _really cared_? Why was she being stubborn with _him_?

_You dumbass, _Ian thought to himself. _Of course she's pissed at you. _You_ are_ _the problem. This started because of you. You're the one making her cry._

For a moment he could not think, but only feel. Feel guilt. Of all the terrible things he'd done, none had ever touched him and made him feel this cold inside. He didn't want to feel that surge of guilt flowing through him. Right now, he had no one to blame but himself. _He _hurt _her_. He was hurting her.

_My fault. It's all my fault._

It was one of those moments where the only sounds they could hear were there breaths. The only thing they were aware of was each other. Where neither of them could understand what was happening, or what they were doing, like their bodies had a separate, individual mind. Where neither thought, but only moved in sync.

Wanda was only aware of Ian's hand that was advancing towards her, and she could look nowhere else. She liked his eyes on her when she was looking away. Words were stuck in Ian's throat, and they escaped as one heavy breath. It blew strands of her hair away. He only focused on her face, which came closer and closer until their foreheads touched. A tear that had been hiding near her eye, now travelled down her cheek. Ian brushed it away with his thumb.

The words finally escaped, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" she whispered.

"Because I care."

"Why do you care?" she looked in to his eyes.

And again he was lost, lost in her scent, lost with the overwhelming sensations – his hand against her pale skin, his nose touching hers, his free hand slowly snaking around her waist, her eye lashes fluttering against his cheek.

But Wanda was now wide awake, aware of the closeness, aware of her surroundings, aware of the bell ringing in the background, and aware of the footsteps making their way down the hall. She shoved past him, and slammed the door on her way out. She wiped the remaining tear away, as she tried to understand what had just happened, but it made little sense. Her naïvety got in the way finding a real answer, which was now stuck in Ian's mind.

_I think I like her too much._

But scratching his head, he felt as if that had always been the case. Only now did he understand, _how much_.


	12. Red Faced

A/N: Yep, two chapters at once! That's how I try to make up for my prolonged absence.

* * *

CHAPTER 10  
**RED FACED**

Ian figured it was time for a run. He didn't have soccer practice, but he thought he needed some extra time to think. To get his priorities straight. To think about his future, his present, and of course, Wanda. He didn't even change into his gym shorts – just took his shirt off and went for a run in the empty track.

He contemplated using his feet as an indication – left foot "I don't like her" and right foot "I like her". It was a good thing no one was here, because they'd probably think he was crazy, running around barefoot with just his pants on. Slowly he lost track, and decided it wasn't up to chance. It was up to him.

_She doesn't want anything to do with me._

_She probably doesn't even know that I was about to kiss her._

Did she? Was Wanda the kind of girl who honestly understood these physical interactions? Of course Melanie and Jared had the tendency to PDA, so she had to understand, but did she realize what was about to happen if the bell hadn't rung? Could she really understand how _he _felt? For all he knew, Wanda still probably thought she was being Ian's charity program.

_I bet she isn't thinking about this as much as I am._

But he was obviously wrong. Wanda thought about it long and hard. She wasn't sure what Ian had tried to do back there, but she understood that no ordinary "friend" would be so... near you. She'd smelt his peppermint breath. She'd felt his straight nose. He'd wiped her tear. Was that part of the just-friends regime?

She consulted Melanie.

"Hey, Mel," she said, while standing next to her locker. "How did you start dating Jared?"

"I thought I told you."she reapplied her lip balm.

"You told me he asked you out officially to the Winter Dance."

"So I did tell you."

"No, I was really thinking how you _realized _you liked him."

"Well," Mel smoothed out the corner of her lip with her finger. "We shared this heat-of-the-moment kiss."

"Heat of the wha?"

"Basically we were staring at each other for a little while, then he grabbed my face and gave me a big fat smooch." she took her bag and closed the locker door. "Why are you asking?"

"No reason."

Melanie made nothing of it.

"You need Jared to drop you home, or are you gonna walk home fine?" Melanie's biggest concern right now was Wanda's emotional well-being. She needed to work on her lab report with Reid, but then again she didn't want to leave Wanda wandering off by herself.

"I'll be fine."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"How sure?"

"Sure sure."

"You're okay, right?"

"Yes, Mel, I'm fine." Wanda waved goodbye, as she exited the hall. She was embarrassed, jaded, and slightly confused, but she was fine. Okay. No more, no less. Just meh. She'd been through worse in 7th grade. This was just a different sort of bullying.

Ian's state was no different. On one hand, he was quite happy with himself that he'd been able to tell Wanda that, _yeah_, he cared. On the other hand... Pfft. Of course he cared. She had to know that. What he hadn't told her is that he really cared. Like really, really, really and like a lot.

Ian had the urge to smack himself for thinking so much about _a clueless girl who didn't even like him back _but he kept running. When the thoughts were too overwhelming, he could always just concentrate on keeping his pace up. It wasn't like that scary few minutes in bed before you fall asleep when your brain decides you should relive all the terrible, embarrassing moments of your life. He felt more in control. That's why he ran.

When Wanda had exited the school building a scary feeling pricked her skin. Like she was being followed. Pretty soon, she felt as if she should run as well, but instead decided to take a detour near the bleachers. There was an exit there, and it was almost always empty.

She didn't make it to the exit, before she felt a force push her over to the fence.

Ian's running was over now, because he had nothing else to think about. He stopped on his right foot. He brushed his hair back and smiled to himself. It was time to hit the shower. As he walked towards the locker room, he thought he heard screaming. Blood was pounding in his ears, loudly. He could just as well have imagined it.

"Did you really think you could beat me?" the voice was unmistakable, but Wanda was in too much pain to move her face and watch her smile vindictively. A echoes of laughter surrounded them, and she knew there were at least five other people watching her suffer.

Ian had this feeling of unease as he washed away the sweat from his body. Now that the pounding had stopped, he was more aware of his surroundings. He almost felt as if the screaming was real. Too soon, he rushed out of the shower, and clothed himself, still soaking. He put the towel on his shoulder, and walked out wearing his shoes without doing his laces.

Maybe he felt that prickling sensation again, but he didn't expect to hear the strange sounds again. He could see the exit near the bleachers, but there was no one there. Why could he hear sniffling and crying?

He looked around for some sort of sign, but the place was quite empty. His told him one thing, and his ears told him another. He relied on them to source the sounds.

It wasn't ordinary crying, but more like sobbing. It was muffled, and there was hiccuping. It sounded like the horrible, uncontrollable kind of sadness. Painful.

He steered himself towards the back of the bleachers, and saw someone curled into a ball in the distance. When he looked closer, he could see her long blonde hair covering her entire face.

"Wanda," he whispered to himself, almost like a question. He dumped his bag and towel on the ground and ran, like he had on the tracks, as fast as he could. "Wanda." he repeated, louder this time. She looked up to meet his eyes for half a second, and retreated further into the back.

_Him again. Why does it always have to be him?_

There were cuts on her face, splashes of red all over – but not from blushing.

Her nose was bleeding.

* * *

A/N: Yes, vastly different, but just to let you know, we'd eventually get here. It was planned for chapter 15 or something originally, but it made more since for it to happen sooner. Thanks all of you for the encouragement and the reminders!


	13. Unwanted Rescue

CHAPTER 11  
**UNWANTED RESCUE**

It took him some restraint from touching her face, and wiping it clean of all the blood and tears. When he'd even try to move his hand forward, she'd flinch like she was scared – _of him_.

He thanked God that he remembered to bright the towel, because she was bleeding profusely from the nose. It didn't seem very broken, just injured. Regardless, it fucking _disgusted him_. It didn't matter how or when, only _who_. It took everything to just not lose it right there.

With Wanda in this fragile of a state, he had to will himself not to. There was no one here anyway, so it was his immediate priority to fix her up. When he tried to touch her, she constantly shook her head. She was so afraid.

"I just want to help," he calmed her reassuringly. He may have wanted to shout and yell out of frustration, but that would help no one. He had to act methodically in these delicate situations.

He handed her the towel gently, and she hesitantly took it from him. When the towel touched her face, it stung, springing more tears. Ian took her dormant hand. He rubbed it with his thumb, to give her some sort of sign. She no longer protested to his assistance. She was just in too much pain.

He took the towel and placed it right above her lip, and underneath her nose, where the blood was thick and fresh. The cut near her chin had dried up, more of a scratch really, but tried to wipe some of it away anyway. This resulted in Wanda cringing all over the place.

"That hurts," she whispered, wincing. Of course it did, it would have made any ordinary girl yelp like crazy, but Wanda was not comfortable displaying the real, actual pain she was in. Her pain wasn't just physical – in her head, she kept replaying the situation, replaying how she'd gotten each injury every time Ian touched it.

"I'll make it stop, okay?" Ian searched in his gym bag for some antiseptic, and practically turned the bag upside down to find it. His urgency transformed into aggression – but this was only when he wasn't touching Wanda. With her, he couldn't be gentler.

The stinging was too much, so she retreated into Ian's chest each time. She felt the warmth radiating from him alleviate the pain. His hand had become numb from squeezing hers, both their knuckles red. When was busy fixing her hands and her feet, Wanda would steal glances at him, and often wonder _why_. Just _why _he had to be so kind to her. This kindness resulted in all this pain. Yet, she could not turn it down.

When he was done, he noticed her looking at him strangely, and said, "What?" and she looked away, biting her lip slightly. He folded the bloody towel away, and packed up. Wanda watched him closely, as he wiped his sweat.

"Can you walk?" he asked, when he was done packing up. She responded with a small nod, refusing to look at him, now. She struggled, but she was able to stand up. When she took a step forward, she almost tripped, so Ian decided it was best to provide some support, and take her waist. The parking lot was not far thankfully, so she was soon sitting down again.

When they were driving away from the school building, Ian asked, "Should I drop you off at the hospital, to get some of those checked?" Wanda urgently shook her head, still not meeting his eyes. "Melanie's then?" still shook her head. "I know you can talk."

After a long time of licking her lips, Wanda replied, "I can walk home." Her voice was hoarse.

_Is she SERIOUSLY trying to make me madder than I already am?_

"Jesus, Wanda, you're not going to _walk _home like this." He hadn't realized how loud he was until Wanda winced. He'd scared her again. She made a small, high pitched noise.

_God, Ian, she's flipping traumatized. Do you really think she needs you yelling?_

"Sorry," he said to her immediately. His voice softened to its usual tenor. "Don't you want to go home?"

Wanda did not face him, but looked out the window. She made no sound. No gesture. No reply. Ian took that as a no.

"I get it, I guess; You're scared of explaining it to Melanie?" Still no response. "Wanda?" A sniffling noise. "Wanda, are you _crying_?"

He hit the brakes, to make sure. Tears glistened in her eyes, again. He tried to say nothing. She'd practically been stepped on by some jackass a couple hours ago. He'd raised his voice. She probably needed her space.

"Hey," he addressed her gently, taking her hand. "I just need to make sure you're safe, okay? I just want to you to get better. I know you're not in the mood for talking, but you need to let me know what it is that you want."

She could barely say coherent words through her tears. "I don't have anywhere to go."

He looked into her eyes, so helpless and so scared. It was like watching a puppy get beaten to a pulp. "You can stay at my place, 'kay? Kyle's not home anyway, so there's a spare room."

"But, Melanie."

"Tell her you're at a some girl-friend's."

She widened her eyes in horror. "But that would be dishonest."

"What choice do you have?" he held out his palm. "Give me your phone."

Thoughtfully, he typed out a text to Melanie, when Wanda handed him the device reluctantly.

**Wanda: Crashing at Lily's. History paper. Pair thing. Not coming home tonight.**

They drove the rest of the way quietly. This caused it to be another period of awkwardness and stolen glances, from both of them. Neither knew what the other thought, but somehow, both managed to think of each other.

When she tripped while going up the stairs, Wanda no longer protested to Ian carrying her. What good would it do her to be stubborn about it, and have another argument? She didn't want to be a burden to him, but she slowly realized, that her obstinacy was a bigger burden to him more than anything.

Seeing as Wanda had been able to share silence with him comfortably, without tearing up again, Ian took this as an opportunity to get some answers out of her. She didn't even mind when he carried her through the door and laid her on his bed. She quietly rubbed her bruises and thought. About what he couldn't imagine.

"Are you going to tell me what the hell happened?" Ian had asked softly, trying so very hard not to be angry, because the anger was not directed at her.

Wanda took the longest time ever to answer then, while Ian fidgeted with the door, waiting. "Nothing."

"You're a rotten liar," Ian snapped, opening the door with too much force. "You know that, right?"

She'd kept her eyes away and breathed. Ian set her down on the couch, and turned the lights on. She was wincing when he'd come back to her. "Who did this?" he nodded towards the big, dark bruise on the back of her thigh. That's why she'd been limping. She said nothing.

"You need to lie down," he said, and carried her to his bedroom. When he'd set her down, she lay there, trying to watch him without giving it away.

Ian put his hand under her chin, and pulled her face up. He gently twisted it to the side. "There's more blood in your hair."

"I fell."

"You're not actually trying to convince me this was an _accident_ are you?"

She shrugged.

"Why are you protecting them? They wanted to hurt you." A strange kind of tremor shook Ian's body, imagining it. Imagining those bastards hurting her like that. Sickened him, even scared him. "They could have killed you..." His hands hadn't left her face. The thought scared him more thoroughly than he could imagine.

He laid down next to her, and pulled her close, slid into her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He pulled her so close, that Wanda could feel his breath go in and go out, could hear his heartbeat, his body still shaking a little.

She thought it felt very strange. Strangely comforting.

"I'm going to murder them." It was not even a statement of anger or contempt, only fact. He would hurt them like they hurt her.

Wanda's voice was weak, audible only barely to Ian. "You won't do that."

"Oh yes, I will." she tried to push him away but he tightened his grip.

"No, you won't, because you don't know anything."

"Wanda-"

"Promise you won't do anything crazy." Ian crossed his arms across his chest and gave her a _you have got to be kidding me_ face. "Promise."

"Why should I?"

"Because nothing happened."

"That is such a lie." Ian decided to play along. "So, where did all those injuries come from?" he touched her cheeking, brushing the cut right underneath her eye. The lines were evident, but

"I don't remember."

"Pathetic." he sat up, frustrated. The sudden movement caused Wanda to yelp in pain. "Sorry!"

"I'm okay," she lied. "Really."

"Tell me where it hurts." he demanded.

"No, I'm really just fine."

Ian touched the spot Wanda was grabbing onto. "There?"

"Higher."

He traced the injury to the back of her shoulder, which was wet with blood. He had to hiss at the sight. He was up immediately, looking for bandages and what not, tossing supplies on the bed. He patted the bed, so Wanda would edge closer, breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed the zipper on Wanda's dress. He didn't want to imagine how awkward the situation would have been had she gone for a different choice of attire.

Wanda reacted with unease when he started zipping the dress down to her lower back. "I won't look," he reassured her, effectively reddening her face more than it already was.

He tried to hold the dress out of his way the best he could, but Wanda could tell he was having trouble. He did try very hard not to look, but there was no possible way to clean the wound and _not look_.

"I should really be taking you to a doctor." Ian groped. A part of him – a part long gone – may have been intrigued by the colour of his crush's underclothes. But, really, bandaging her shoulder without adjusting her strap was getting downright uncomfortable.

Crush. At least he was admitting it.

"I think you're really good at this," Wanda said. Was this just a way of escaping the doctor's or did she mean it? It didn't sound like a lie. "Where'd you learn it?"

"Well, when I was a kid – hold still, please – I wasn't the best at sports. Used to be one of those benchwarmers." Wanda winced slightly as Ian applied the antiseptic. "I had a lot of free time. Helped some people out. Got better at it. This one kid – Travis, was it? – he used to call me Nurse O'Shea."

Wanda giggled. "That's funny."

"My childhood wasn't nearly as "glamorous" as it is, now," Ian evaluated whether or not to just lightly brush away Wanda's bra strap, and decided against it. "Could you, um, get that for me?"

"Oh, sorry," Wanda blushed and complied. Surprisingly Ian had gone redder than Wanda, this time.

_Awkward awkward awkward awkward.  
__Don't think about how this looks.  
__Do not think about it._

"Can you tell me another story?"

Ian was glad to be broken from the uncomfortable silence. "I sure can."

* * *

A/N: Don't worry - O'Wanda quality time is not yet over.


	14. Nightmares

_Recap: Ian finds Wanda crying and beaten behind the bleachers, and rescues her, taking her all the way to his house for her to stay the night, much to Wanda's dismay. Furious, Ian asks her who did this, but Wanda is insistent on lying or evading the questioning. This is what happens next._

* * *

CHAPTER 13  
**NIGHTMARES**

"Veronica. Victor. Wait, no, Violetta. Am I warmer?" Ian asked Wanda, while sitting around the counter, enjoying cold sandwiches for dinner. Wanda shook her head in response. "How about that Asian exchange student? I bet she's a demon inside."

She only shrugged.

"Give me a clue. Give me something," Ian begged. "You know I'm going to make Kyle piss on Lacey's lawn, either way."

"For the millionth time, Ian," Wanda griped. "Let it go."

"No, I won't let it go." Aggressively, he cracked open a can of diet coke, took a sip, and spat it back into the sink. "You like diet coke?" she shook her head no. Wanda twirled her hair nervously, hoping this distraction would divert his attention from the initial topic of discussion.

"Anyway," Ian said as soon as he was back with a glass of water. "Where was I? At V? Oh, no, we were talking about Lacey."

"She didn't touch me," Wanda assured him. It was not a lie. The lie in her claim was what she added after. "Not her fault." She said this as quietly as possible, to hide the lie that was so obvious. But there really was no hiding from it – it was like wearing red to a funeral.

"I don't buy that for a second." He put a whole sandwich into his mouth, and whatever he said after was unintelligible. "A fink if wah weedenwerg. Yuh?"

Wanda snorted sweetly, her adorable little sound of amusement only Ian could elicit, and rolled her eyes. Ian had lived knowing, that the more you made a girl laugh, the more they liked you. That's how it had always worked. But, the more she laughed, the more he started to like her. It was a strange, unfamiliar position to be in. How effortlessly she could make those around her so ridiculously happy. And she had no idea.

These were the little things that often caused Ian to lose his train of thought, and think only of her.  
He stared at her curiously, without realizing.

Wanda blinked a couple times, adjusting her oversized clothes. "What?" she asked. All this eye contact felt… unusual.

_But not bad_, she thought.

Ian only realized what he'd been doing for so long and coughed, stalling to think of a non-creepy response. "Um, there's some cheese on your…" he pointed at his cheek with his finger.

"Where?" Wanda started wiping her face, despite anything being there. In the process of doing this, she actually left traces of bits of the chicken salad on the corner of her nose.

"There," Ian pointed at his own nose.

"Here?" Wanda asked, pointing to the complete opposite side.

"No, there," Ian pointed at her own nose, now, laughing. Wanda rubbed it with the back of her palm, and now got food right under her lip.

Ian chuckled and wiped it off, saving her the trouble. His smile never wore off.

"Thanks," Wanda said, shyly, in a small voice.

Often during so many of these awkward moments, she drifted off and started looking around the apartment, spotting random details. It wasn't hard to change subjects, because all she would have to do was point at one of the many pictures that hung on the wall, and ask "Who's that?"

Ian would look at the pictures nostalgically, and explain where and when and why this picture was taken and with whom, enthusiastically and lose himself in the memories. Sometimes he wished he'd never left Florida, but then he was immediately pulled back into the present when one day made any sign of her presence.

He would realize then, that he would never have met her.  
He was willing to give up his past for just that.

How he wished he could tell her so.

_Why is it that I like her so much_?

He often thought these things, in his free time, especially right before bed. Now that Wanda was sleeping soundly in his room, and he was out here all alone on the couch, he was free to think about these things without feeling embarrassed.

He thought of all the girls he'd been with, the reasons why he'd chosen to be with the girl he was dating, and the truth was, there was really no reason. It wasn't right for a boy like him to be single, because all the girls would be after him, so that was his incentive.

He never _wanted _any of it, but rather _needed _it. For the sake of some peace of mind.

But what was it that made him _want _to be around Wanda, so much? He couldn't understand. There was this strange feeling of comfort he felt around this almost-stranger. He didn't really know a great deal about her, but he knew that he wanted to know more. More and more and more, until she became an extension of his own self. He wanted to know what made her laugh, what made her cry, her pet peeves, hopes, dreams. He wanted to know all of that, and he wanted to give himself to her just like that.

Was it because he was lonely? He didn't think so, he just couldn't help being intrigued by her mannerisms and her optimism. How would Kyle have dealt with all the bashing and bullying? The whole would have known the entire story by heart.

She was so brave. And content with whatever she had.  
Had he met anyone in his entire life who was ever as grateful as she?

Thinking of her, he could not drift into sleep. There was too much to think about, too much to wonder. He liked to imagine her, think of everything that made Wanda herself. He could almost hear her whisper his name, in that special, heartwarming way of hers. "Ian," she'd say. It sounded so much better than how other people said it. "Ian."

He could imagine her sniffling and crying, as she said this. "Ian," she whispered, this time here voice full of fear.

Wait – where was he getting all this? Why could he hear the sound of her small feet shuffling against the wooden floor? His eyes shot open, and he turned around to see Wanda, tear faced, in his damp, green jersey. It reached her knees, and hugged her shape like a great, big nightdress. In her hand she grasped a pillow.

There was so much fear in her eyes. Ian was immediately up and off the couch. "What happened?" he asked her gently.

"I had a bad dream."  
He gently caressed her face, wiping out the tears. "You wanna tell me about it?"  
She looked up at his face, unsure what to say and choked out a few words. "I was back at the bleachers," she said, and burst into tears.  
He engulfed her into his big arms, trying to reassure her she was safe. "It's okay, it's okay. You're okay."  
He guided her towards his room, trying to settle her into bed. He sat and scooted, patting the bed so as to gesture her to lie down, and she complied.

He leaned down to whisper into her ear, "Don't think about it, okay?" and kissed her forehead.

He'd kissed her.  
Not on the mouth or anything.  
But his lips had touched her face, and this was enough for him to tell, that, no, this change was irrevocable.

He would never be able to look back. Sifting his hand through her hair, he was now sure he knew what he wanted.

When she was asleep, he tried to give her space and started getting up to head back to the catch.

"No," she protested, softly, in her sleep.  
"I have to go to bed," he told her.  
"Please stay," she mumbled weakly.

Lying down next to her, he thought, it couldn't have been just him who wanted more from this strange friendship. There was deeper care they felt for one another, that went beyond the realms of friendship.

But would Wanda be able to recognize this as easily as Ian had?

At the moment she was not concerned. She was dreaming, and she was safe. Safe here.  
With him.

Unaware of the severity of this change, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

* * *

A/N: Overwhelming workload, guys. All I'm saying.


End file.
